The present invention is related to telecommunications networks, and in particular to provisioning and/or accessing pooled resources in a telecommunications network.
A typical telecommunications network is depicted in FIG. 1. As illustrated, telecommunications network 100 includes a number of network devices 123, 125, 127 maintained at a connection location 120. Each of the network devices is coupled to a respective subscriber access 133, 135, 137 and thereby provides access to services supported by central office 110. Thus, when a subscriber accesses telecommunications network 100, the access is performed via the assigned network device. This approach is wasteful as a particular subscriber may only use an associated network device for a limited portion of a day.
It has been proposed to pool various telecommunications resources in a voice network. However, it is not evident how such a pooling scheme could be used where the network includes relatively high frequency data signals and associated network devices, or where a packet based network is employed. Hence, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for pooling network devices in a network where high speed data network signals are present and/or packet based networks are employed.